FIG. 1 depicts telecommunications system 100 that comprises telecommunications terminals 105-j (e.g., a wireless telephone, a laptop computer with softphone capability, etc.), for j=1 to 2, and network 120 (e.g., the Public Switched Telephone Network [PSTN], a cellular wireless network, a wireless local-area network, etc.) in the prior art. Telecommunications terminal 105-j is capable of receiving messages (e.g., incoming voice call notifications, email messages, Short Message Service [SMS] messages, Multimedia Message Service [MMS] messages, Instant Messaging [IM] messages, etc.) that originate from other telecommunications terminals via network 120.
When telecommunications terminal 105-j receives a message, it notifies its user of the message's arrival—or of the associated incoming call if one is occurring—by playing a “ringtone” (e.g., a tune, a series of beeps, etc.) via speaker 110-j; by displaying visual information (e.g., text, an image, etc.) via display 111-j (if present); or by vibrating the terminal via vibration mechanism 112-j (if present), alone or in combination. Telecommunications terminal 105-j might play a particular ringtone for all incoming messages, or a ringtone that is associated with a category of callers (e.g., a ringtone for business contacts, a ringtone for friends, a ringtone for family members, etc.), or a ringtone that is associated with an individual caller, etc. Similarly, telecommunications terminals 105-1 and 105-2 might display a text message (e.g., “Incoming Call”, “Incoming Call: Mom”, “Incoming Call: 212-555-1234”, etc.) or an image (e.g., an animated icon of a ringing telephone, a photo of the caller, etc.), or both, to indicate that there is an incoming message.
FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative block diagram of the salient components of network 120 in the prior art. As shown in FIG. 2, network 120 comprises a plurality of network infrastructure elements 201-i for i=1 to 4, interconnected as shown. Each network infrastructure element 201-i might be a switch, a private branch exchange (PBX), a wireless base station, a wireless switching center, a server, etc., depending on the type and topology of network 120. As will be understood by those skilled in the art, although all network infrastructure elements are denoted by the same prefix 201, element 201-1 might be a switch, while element 201-2 might be a wireless base station, etc. Similarly, the fact that network 120 has four elements 201 in FIG. 2 is merely illustrative; network 120 might have fewer elements or a greater number of elements than that depicted.